Mark Aspiri, at the GOP U.S. Senatorial debate at the Denver Post auditorium. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Republican Mark Aspiri today suspended his campaign for the U.S. Senate, saying the value of continuing to fight for the grassroots of the Republican Party “against the D.C. machine is attractive” but comes at a cost.

The Glenwood Springs businessman said the decision to drop out prior to the April 12 assembly came after talks and prayer with friends, family and supporters. The three remaining GOP candidates are U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, state Sen. Randy Baumgardner and Tom Janich.

Aspiri is now one of five candidates who have exited the GOP race after Gardner announced he was abandoning his congressional re-election bid to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. Gardner is the heavy favorite to win the primary.

Like his contemporaries, Aspiri stressed the need to unite the Republican Party in order to bring better leadership to the nation’s capital.

Amy Stephens, a state representative and former House minority leader from Monument. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post_

The Denver Post’s debate between six of the seven candidates for U.S. Senate Tuesday night was as much about sizing up themselves as it was tearing down and each other, and especially the Democrat currently sitting in the seat. One of the debaters, Ken Buck, is back to take a second shot at the Senate, after losing a close race to Michael Bennet in 2010.

State Senator Owen Hill from Colorado Springs

Udall was called an “enabler” to President Obama and characterized as an incompetent public official who made a half-hearted effort to stop the National Security Agency’s spying program that amassed piles of phone and e-mail records of Americans in the search for terrorist plots. That was a hard case to make. A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Udall challenged the Obama White House on the issue and voted against his own party’s interest when the Democrats put up an NSA reform bill.

“We didn’t need an Edward Snowden to go to Russia,” said state Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs, referencing the leaker who brought the NSA kerfuffle to light then fled the country to avoid criminal charges. “We needed a Mark Udall to stand up for the American people … After Edward Snowden left, then all of the sudden we have the courageous Mark Udall.”

Weissmann needed 1,000 valid petition signatures to get on the ballot, and he submitted 1,456 by the April 2 deadline. About a week later, however, the Secretary of State’s office determined that 614 signatures were not valid.

A third Republican, who has lost a number of statewide races in the last decade, is entering the 2nd Congressional District primary.

Tom Janich has run for House District 36 twice, the 7th Congressional District in 2008 and House District 31 in 2010. He was unsuccessful in each of those bids.

Janich now joins state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, and businessman Eric Weissmann in the June primary for the Boulder-based district.The winner moves-on to face two-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Jared Polis in what’s been a seat held by the party since the 1970s.

“I’ve explained those charges and I don’t believe they’ll have any bearing on this election,” said Janich, who has served on both the Brighton School Board and the Greater Brighton Fire Protection District. “It was a case where some big money 527s did a character assassination on me.”

Janich’s campaign website boasts that he is the “most fiscally conservative elected official in Adams County saving taxpayers millions in unwanted tax increases and have the battle scars to prove it.”

The new 2nd District has more independent voters (37 percent) than Democrats (33 percent) and Republicans (29 percent).

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.